Cleary Gottlieb represented Lenta in a $275 million public offering of GDRs dually-listed in London and Moscow, conducted under Regulation S / Rule 144A. The offering comprised a $150 million primary tranche comprising 4.3% of all Lenta shares and a $125m secondary tranche representing a sale by the EBRD, reducing its stake in Lenta from 11.5% to 7.4%. The transaction closed on October 26, 2015. Lenta is using the proceeds largely to fund the acquisition of 11 hypermarkets and a distribution center for its growing supermarket business. Lenta’s March 2015 primary offering (on which we also advised) and this offering are the only significant international capital markets primary issuances by a Russian business since 2013. Cleary Gottlieb also represented Lenta in its all-secondary March 2014 IPO. Lenta is one of the largest retail chains in Russia and the country’s second largest hypermarket chain, operating 122 hypermarkets in 63 cities across Russia and 27 supermarkets in the Moscow region.
